Meet the client: Theo Michell, Bywater Properties – ADC

Can you tell us about Bywater Properties?

Myself and Richard Walker started the business in late 2006. We were colleagues at Jones Lang LaSalle with very different backgrounds and interests, but discovered a shared entrepreneurial streak and a desire to strike out on our own very early in our careers. We started as a quasi-family office (the Walker family are the founders of Iceland Foods), but after various evolutions are now part owned by the Sumitomo Forestry Company from Japan. Richard remains involved day-to-day and is Chairman of Iceland Foods, while Patrick O’Gorman joined me 10 years ago, and runs the business alongside us.

What is the company’s USP and what type of work are you undertaking?

There is a focus on low-carbon development and specifically, with Sumitomo Forestry as a significant co-owner, timber-led developments in the UK and Europe across all asset classes. Our recent focus has been office space, and we are currently on-site with the Paradise building in Lambeth. This is a glulam and CLT commercial project that surpasses the RIBA 2030 embodied carbon targets. The majority of what we do, however, is re-use and refurbishment – again looking to use timber structures for any additional massing needed. We are also exploring opportunities in both BTR and student housing sectors, as well as timber-frame retail park projects.

What is your design vision?

A blank piece of paper is daunting: my personal aim is to make sure all of our projects have a distinct presence and character, but my ‘vision’ for how to achieve that is more about trusting in a carefully selected design team and giving them some latitude to explore innovative ideas and to make a case for the added value that comes from good design. My motivation is less around a personal design vision, and more about being known as an enlightened and supportive client. I think that’s how we’ve managed to deliver some really stand out buildings. My role is to ensure coherence between our projects, such that people might say, ‘that must be a Bywater project’.

Why is timber important to you from a development perspective?

It’s because of the embodied carbon advantage that it offers, as well as the less easy to quantify but equally important health and wellbeing advantages. We are not a ‘timber only’ developer, but will always want to explore a timber-led option as part of a basket of solutions, while still pushing to be at the forefront on low-carbon initiatives across the delivery process.

How do you generate value?

Through taking the unloved and overlooked, and turning those buildings into places that people love and want to be in. That’s at the heart of all successful decisions and why design is so fundamental to what we do. It’s the difference between space and place; people have to want to inhabit the end product to give it life, meaning and ultimately value in the widest sense, financial as well as social.

What are main challenges facing the office sector today?

The challenges and opportunities for the office sector have been well documented over recent years and perhaps don’t need reiterating in detail. We’re great believers that people still want to be together in a workplace but perhaps ‘the office’ no longer captures what these places need to be to generate the excitement and love of place I referred to above. Specifically thinking about design challenges and timber, I do have a concern that such a strong pivot away from new-build in favour of retrofit may hamper innovation, and we need to take a very long-term view of our built stock, keeping the best but supporting new building where that meets the most stringent targets for low carbon and longevity.

How important is sustainability and what are you doing to improve the environmental performance of your projects?

Hugely important; it’s the number one focus alongside commercial viability, and the balance between the two is the decision environment we operate in. We would not pursue a lucrative but environmentally poor project, just as we’d not be able to pursue sustainable ambitions that could be achieved financially. We’re always looking to use timber to reduce the embodied carbon of projects and to drive operational efficiency – not only in the design phase, but also looking hard at how we can encourage tenant behaviours so that buildings achieve the optimal efficiencies they’ve been design for. We’re looking at this not only through ‘green lease’ commitments, but also education and ‘gamin’ strategies to inform and motivate individual tenants, not just the senior team who might take a lease decision.

Is retrofit part of your overall strategy, and if so, are there any projects you are currently working on?

Absolutely; it’s 80-90 per cent of what we look at. We’re currently under offer on two office refurbishment projects, one in Clerkenwell and one in Manchester city centre, and would expect to buy four more projects in the coming 18 months alongside three residential projects.

How do you go about selecting architects to work with?

Personally. We might call for recommendations but it’s always a decision I will want to be involved in and to meet the project team at associate as well as director level. We’re very open to work with practices at a variety of scales but feel there needs to be a ‘click’ with the client team for it to work.

What is the one thing an architect could say or do that would make you disinclined to work with them?

As a developer, but one with a genuine passion for design and innovation, I think there’s inevitably some tension between commercial pragmatism that comes from leaning on experience and supporting new ideas. Others in our team might disagree, but I’m usually put off by, ‘we’ve done plenty of this before, we can take the same approach here’. There may be good reason to build on experience but I’d never want to be known for a ‘cookie cutter’ approach to projects.

What projects do you have in the pipeline and who are you working with?

We’re currently working with Feilden Clegg Bradley on delivering our timber office project Paradise in Vauxhall, and Waugh Thistleton in Clerkenwell. I can’t confirm yet our selection for Manchester, but we have a very strong shortlist all with built timber and CLT expertise.